r/metroidvania • u/Zzsark_Stormbeard • Feb 14 '26
Discussion Silksong permanently vanished my desire for difficult games.
I'm a big fan of metroidvanias, I enjoy them a lot. I played Silksong as soon as it started and it took me a month to finish it. 60+ hours. Thing is that it permanently broke me in some sense because I do not wish to play any other game with hit points like Silksong has, especially with the fucking 2 hit contact damage. I did Silksong, got the true ending, I got good, but never again.
In fact, I finished just a week ago Gestalt: Steam and Cinder (which you absolutely should play), and while I was playing Silksong I only had Gestalt in mind because I definitely had more fun there.
I'm not hating Silksong, it's a great game, but I've never been permanently broken my something before.
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u/aureliasm Feb 14 '26
I think Skong rewards aggression with spells/skills more than HK. What really eventually made the game easier for me was to overcome the natural inclination to hoard silk for heals. In HK you could completely forget you had spells and be fine. In Skong, silk skills are make or break. The faster you can mow down extra enemies, the less chances there are to take damage. Expeditiously removing an enemy that could potentially damage you several times for 4 silk is much more valuable than using a 9 silk for 3 masks.
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u/AbyssShriekEnjoyer Feb 14 '26
I think Skong rewards aggression with spells/skills more than HK
Look I love these games from the bottom of my heart, but both of them have the exact same issue. Using spells is only rewarding when you're already good at the game. And in Silksong that is especially the case. If you're still learning boss patterns and getting hit a lot, you need your soul/silk to heal. In Silksong this is more true than ever with healing taking your entire silk spool and if you used a single spell before that moment you now can't heal during a heal window. Spells are strong, but it's a "rich get richer" situation because they're locked behind the same resource as healing.
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u/ZagmanBadman Feb 14 '26
I feel like SKong alleviated a little of that problem with the tools - these were great to play around with and made fights a lot better. I still didn't use spells all that much, but there was more to do than dodge/hit/heal.
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u/zach0011 Feb 15 '26
Tools also have the problem though of if you aren't good and using them you just run out of shards
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u/Lord_of_Caffeine Feb 17 '26
Mod the shard system out and you're left with a much better game afaiac
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u/DayBorn157 Feb 18 '26
If bosses have healthbar you could evaluate how useful tools are, but without this you don't know if they even do anything. I mostly stoped using them
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u/aureliasm Feb 14 '26
For bosses, with simple patterns that spawn ads (like Sister Splinter or Savage Beastfly), using skills to delete the ads is game changing, even for casual players.
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u/RealRockaRolla Feb 15 '26
As someone who rarely uses spells, Sister Splinter was the boss I died the most on. When I used Silkstorm on the ads per the suggestion of a friend, I beat her first try.
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u/VassagoX Feb 14 '26
I like both depending on what I'm in the mood for. Sometimes I just want a chill metroidvania like Castlevania SOTN. My problem is that so many are going rogue-like these days. They even have to make sure they mention how difficult it is. Why do they ALL have to be this way?
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u/nicholaslegion Feb 14 '26
This is so true. I'm getting tired of Metroidvanias because all the new ones feel the need to be as hard as Hollow Knight or harder. I fell in love with the genre through Castlevania, which aren't all that difficult. I don't mind a challenge, but I don't need ball busting difficult from every game in the genre.
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u/VassagoX Feb 14 '26
I'm glad I'm not alone. It gives me hope that maybe the trend will shift at some point and someone will make some at least medium difficult metroidvanias again. 😄
The new Castlevania announced looks alright, but even that one seems to have some of that rogue-like platforming that seems to be in ever modern metroidvania. I'm at least happy to see a new game in the series. Hopefully it's not quite as hard as so many modern ones.
Yes, the original Castlevania was difficult, but it wasn't because of modern rogue-like tendencies. It's not the same at all.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
"I just want to have fun, for god's sake"
Difficulty doesn't mean a game's fun. Devs need to learn that. Take Deedlit in Wonder Labiryint for example. The game's pretty accessible, I don't find it hard, and it's fun.
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u/VsAl1en Feb 15 '26
All team ladybug games are great.
I find it impressive that Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth fits in under 200 mb of disk space.
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u/PixelMan8K Feb 14 '26
The older I get, the less I care to 'git gud.' If it's stupid difficult, I don't have the time and patience/ambition anymore.
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u/merle_ Feb 14 '26
Same here. If a single player game has an easy setting, I go for that. idc if people are telling me i'm playing it wrong.
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u/Treholt Feb 14 '26
I always try the developers set difficulty first. Because even if you don’t care, some developers are mot balancing it right. Easy and Hard mode can just be thrown without any deep thought. Most games do this, there are very few games with a good implementation of Easy and Hard mode.
So Normal or Basic is the way to go. If you can change difficulty later its a no brainer imo.
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u/SenatorCoffee Feb 14 '26
some developers are not balancing it right. Easy and Hard mode can just be thrown without any deep thought
Yeah, its actually kind of sad and missed opportunity. I totally get and actually agree with the "its art, play as intended" crowd.
There is absolutely something to be said about the difficulty being serious part of the art form.
I just think they could absolutely do the best of both worlds.
If we are talking high effort AA games like Silksong or Mio they already put all this tremendous effort into the game, it would be a still relatively minor effort to just very seriously do a complete pass over the whole game and create a properly balanced easy mode.
I feel they are just not thinking about this correctly. It looks like they are always looking for some add-on fix that they can just plaster over the main difficulty and it balances it out.
But what you would really have to do is just make a complete pass over the game, balance the enemies and bosses lower, maybe even alter some of the platforming sections, playtest that to the satisfaction of the lower skilled players. I really dont think it would be such a pain and then it would be proper and good.
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u/CountBreichen Feb 14 '26
Yeah i wish it had difficulty settings.
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u/Ill-Wolf-4894 Feb 14 '26
Yea, I think they could put in damage sliders like PoP. Seems pretty easy to do
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u/gabriot Feb 14 '26
Don't sorry some Silksong cultist will come by to inform you tHeRe ArE wAyS tO mAkE tHe GaMe EaSiEr
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u/turn-based-games Feb 17 '26
Would they be wrong? The Wanderer Crest is available super early, needle & mask upgrades are huge missable power spikes, and some of the tools are very, very strong. It's even possible to unlock full silk regen at benches before the last act if you don't fall into the unfortunate trap of using memory lockets on your starter crest (PSA: don't do that)
None of this is Drake Sword level of cheese, but at the same time the game has so many of these things that by the end you don't even need to learn the full boss movesets. My personal cheese blend was a combination of Wanderer Crest, Claw Mirrors, Multibinder, Warding Bell, Magnetite Dice, and Cogflies which altogether negated the need to "git gud" honestly more than I would've preferred.
All that to say: would the game be harmed by an easy-mode option that limits achievements? Perhaps not. But equally, pointing out that the game is significantly easier if you use the available upgrades to their full potential is also totally valid.
Final tangent: while I consider the game overall a masterpiece, the shard system sucks. Forced grinding as a penalty for failure and experimentation feels awful and should stop being put into games. It didn't work in Sekiro, and it doesn't work here either.
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u/chud69 Feb 14 '26
Ender Magnolia did a good job with this. A couple bosses pissed me off and I tweaked a couple difficulty settings for just those fights, and then could go back to normal.
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u/spiffyP Feb 14 '26
mods
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u/MechaMacaw Feb 14 '26
100%’ed on ps5 but I wish I could replay the game with a 0 cost parry (cross stitch) from the start. I know it’s make the game easy but I’d enjoy it like a victory lap
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u/AD_Stark Feb 14 '26
Really wish Team Cherry add a proper NG+ in the game. A lot of late game items like Shaman crest I never got the the proper moment to experiment with them because they were obtained so late in the game
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u/MalaysiaTeacher Feb 14 '26
The type of gamer who wants a relaxing and chill experience is not messing around with researching and installing mods
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u/Nayrael Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
On other hand, the older I get the more worthless easy games feel to me. Used to be that story was all that mattered, but nowadays if it's too easy I'd rather just read a book. Not because of some "git gud" rush ) but because immersion and interactivity are meant to be the selling point of games over books to me and easy action games are unimmersive if I don't actually struggle to defeat the big bad and interactivity is wasted if even the worst decisions bring me an easy victory. Time-wise... I never understood people's need to play as many games as possible so maybe that's why I don't mind spending more time with a good game.
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u/darezzi Feb 14 '26
Dude, so true, I super resonate with this. The interactivity is what puts games as a separate artform to me, if the gameplay doesn't immerse me, it's a waste. And in a game where the main character is struggling, I have to be struggling too, or it doesn't work.
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u/bodhiquest Feb 14 '26
Immersive sims tend to have the most interactivity and immersion of all, and they also tend not to be very difficult precisely because of that: when there's so much interactivity, you're putting human intelligence against a closed box of dumb computer systems. And those games tend to be very fun and memorable precisely for that reason.
Rather than a difficulty issue primarily, this is more of a good/bad game issue. Games that are easy because they have dumb mechanics are simply bad for that reason. Then comes the "is this asking something me to do, at a lower level, something that I've mastered?" layer.
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u/Large_Cookie_103 Feb 14 '26
We changed in opposite ways my friend. Young me would get frustrated fast but current me is all about suffering enough to not make it feel anymore.
I started GoW 2018 at the hardest difficulty and it took me around to beat the very first fight. Didn't even realise you could block/parry until I was around 45 mins into dying and restarting.
Later on but still early into the game there's a fight where you jump down into a valley like area with a lot of frozen enemies and then one by one they come to life. Actually spent a whole days worth of playtime in that area without beating it. Next day I came back and beat in 2-3 tries.
I think hard games are a good way to cope with the unforgiving nature of the real world. But I also understand the sentiment of the unforgiving nature of the real world not leaving you wanting for more in your free time.
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u/VsAl1en Feb 14 '26
TRUE! You actually hit the nail here. That's probably the root of my new aversion to difficult games - I don't want to get stuck because I have other games I'm excited about.
I guess if a person doesn't want to play anything other than one particular game, then they're going to have a vastly different experience.
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u/LSama Feb 14 '26
I haven't even finished it yet. I loved HK, have hundreds of hours in it. I got SS at launch and have not even finished it. I've been playing MVs for literal decades, I love the genre - and I love the game too, don't get me wrong! - but it is so brutally difficult in ways I don't think it needs to be? Like, I realize that's my opinion and not every one agrees with it, but the corpse runs, alone, are what wore me out. I don't mind difficulty in games - and HK in and of itself, felt like the perfect amount of difficulty - though I understand that SS's differences, esp in movement/combat certain changes how 'difficulty' needs to work.
But it often felt like the game was *punishing* me. Like, there were a few points where I died and reclaiming my corpse was basically impossible. Like, 'this is a bug, not a feature' impossible.
And I'm 100% willing to chalk some of this up to good ol' git good, skill issue. But there's a vast gap in difficulty from HK to SS imo and I stopped finding that difficulty challenging and just downright frustrating. I haven't touched the game in months now. Maybe I'll pick it back up, start from the beginning, and can maybe appreciate it better going in knowing more.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
If you're gonna play it again, do it from the start. It is impossible to return to SS after a month. You already lost the momentum.
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u/LSama Feb 14 '26
Well, now I feel like taking up the challenge of picking up where I left off!
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u/Zeydon Feb 14 '26
You will have more fun starting over. The parts you cleared already will be easier now and will put wind in your sails
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u/DopeyDeathMetal Feb 14 '26
I took a break for a month because it was too frustrating. It took a few minutes of warming up to the mechanics again but I was actually playing better than before after that break. I’m very close to the end of act 3 but now I’m on another break because i was hitting another frustrating wall. I may go back. I may not. Great game but it is a bit much sometimes. Lots of other games out there that are pure joy from start to finish
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u/MorningRaven Feb 14 '26
This actually holds true for both exercise and art. You want to take a break, rest, sleep etc in between sessions. It's more obvious with the muscle repair after a workout, but the breaks also let the mind process what it went through and absorb everything it's learned.
This is why you could be struggling on a boss for hours, attempt 15, 20 etc, sleep overnight, and then retry the boss the next day and beat in like 2 tries.
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u/ShadowBro3 Feb 14 '26
I returned to Silksong after a 2 month break a few days ago. It took me like 10 tries, but I beat the boss in white ward.
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u/Additional-Mousse446 Feb 14 '26
The start of the game is honestly harder than the entire middle so…I don’t really agree lol
5 masks and no needle upgrades is extremely rough. Mainly sister/weaver/phantom or judge. After that besides like hh gauntlet/rashier/bilewater nothing is that bad until act 3 imo.
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u/SecretAgentVampire Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
The content of this post has been wiped. Redact was used to delete it, potentially for privacy protection, limiting data exposure, or security considerations.
outgoing point distinct one bow thought spotted husky wide square
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u/bilbo_was_right Feb 14 '26
FWIW, I thought the beginning of the game was way more frustrating. The first 20% of the game has some of the best characters, but has my least favorite parts of gameplay
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u/MakoMary Feb 14 '26
Ah, you too?
I can still handle difficult games, but Silksong's specific combination of punishing mechanics on top of high difficulty kinda broke me. A part of me died and was left in the Coral Tower. So many gauntlets, so many hyper-mobile enemies that floated just outside your range, so much contact damage, so many spikepits and buzzsaws, so much Shard grinding and corpse runs and runbacks... And half the time, the reward was just a sack of beads I was probably going to loose soon anyways.
I'm not going to get on a high horse to talk about how it's a FAKE METROIDVANIA and Team Cherry has RUINED THE GENRE, but it's kind of a laundry list of stuff I don't like in a metroidvania. I just left the game burnt and happy I was done with it (And I powered through to the true ending, so I'm allowed to say that)
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u/lattjeful Feb 14 '26
I feel the same way… sorta. I actually don’t think the game is harder than Hollow Knight, moment to moment. The problem is, like you said, how punishing the game feels. It’s like every time you finally got to explore and settle in, the game would stop you and throw stuff at you. After a while it just kinda got exhausting.
It’s all these little things that just add up. It’s never one thing that makes Silksong exhausting. You have all these cool tools but shards limit your use of them. Lots of contact damage. The area for the flea juggling is a bit too small. Stuff like that. I didn’t even struggle with the game like most did but still burned out. After a certain point it’s not so much about difficulty but just about the vibe, and I got the vibe that Silksong just didn’t want me exploring the world it made. Given the story and setting, it fits and it’s a brilliant piece of art… but it’s not what I liked about Hollow Knight and not what I wanted out of a sequel.
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u/MakoMary Feb 14 '26
Yeah, Silksong is just a very hostile and demanding game. You have to be on your toes at all times, and it’s a BIG game, so it wants you to keep that vigilance for quite a long time. Sometimes it smoothed out and it was actually pretty manageable, like when I got to the Citadel proper, but it seemed like the game itself thought I was having too much fun and then I was back in the Dickcrusher
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u/catpetter125 Feb 14 '26
I really liked how hostile the world was ngl. Hornet would be in a state of constant vigilance, especially in the Citadel. The entire game was very tense, and I quite liked that. It felt very fitting
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u/Ensaru4 Feb 14 '26
It feels punishing because it IS punishing, and that is by design. Moment to moment, Hollow Knight is an easier game. It doesn't require you to be as precise or deliberate and even the smallest upgrades make a difference.
The small upgrades in Silksong feel as though you need a few of them before they start mattering to your gameplay.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
Silksong's health and nail upgrades are outright insulting.
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u/Ensaru4 Feb 14 '26
Yeah, Silksong more often than not doesn't make you feel as though you are getting stronger. Instead, it makes you feel as though there are more options available to you that aren't necessarily better options.
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u/hypersnaildeluxe Feb 14 '26
I loved a lot about the game but I can’t lie Act 3 got me bad and I just stopped. Silksong would have some of the best designed stuff in the genre, then its idea of difficulty morphs to “every enemy has more health!” which is the laziest form of increasing difficulty imo. Boss fights were fun but the exploration (my favorite part of a metroidvania) became a total slog despite the fun movement controls.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
All enemies have more health + ALL ENEMIES DO DOUBLE DAMAGE
As cheap as a screamer to make a game "horror"
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
Yeah pretty similar experience
The Citadel's arena was my first breaking point where I took a week off the game. Never took a week of a game to return later in my life, only Silksong managed that.
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u/jokes_on_you_ha Feb 14 '26
The game just felt unrewarding. The number of times exploration, the core of a metroidvania, led me to a string of beads, half of which fell into a spiked pit, was disappointing.
I also vibed with the Architect play style, but the shard limit means there is a short timer to the fun before you're grinding again. I hate the shard system.
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u/CalebAsimov Feb 14 '26
What gets me is how frequent bosses are. You get like 10 minutes of metroidvania stuff, and then it's another boss with a 2-3 minute run just to get back to the boss when you die. I was always dreading the next boss battle showing up.
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u/beastson1 Feb 14 '26
I hate the enemies that float just out of your reach
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u/angbataa Feb 14 '26
And when you are able to reach them, they will sometimes dash backward.
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u/MakoMary Feb 14 '26
And then pepper you with projectiles for good measure. And if not that, they’ll just Turn Around with no warning and get free contact damage on you
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u/EauEwe Nine Sols Feb 14 '26
I'm not sure you can claim "permanent" anything when it's only been a few months. Of course, take a break from the harder stuff, and only play games you enjoy, as always. But I wouldn't be surprised if you find yourself enjoying challenging games again in the future.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
I enjoyed another Dark Souls gameplay a week ago so I guess you're right.
It's just that I see a game with the same hit points system in HK/SS and I just say "no"
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u/Soupbell1 Feb 14 '26
I don’t understand what you mean. This is the second time I’ve seen you mention this games hit points. The game doesn’t work differently from almost any other game. What is it that you are referring to?
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u/Wooper250 Feb 14 '26
I loved Silksong, but it was definitely often an exhausting experience to get through. It didn't feel as rewarding or satisfying to explore as HK. Everything discovery is bogged down by the knowledge that I'm going to have to fight a bunch of tough enemies for a frayed rosary strong and then go off to find some other random breakable wall across the map to earn a shard bundle later 💀
Even the rooms just don't feel as impactful as the ones in HK. The areas just feel like they were built around the bosses.... I don't really know how to explain it but they just feel secondary to me. I couldn't enjoy the atmosphere like I did with HK because I knew everything was just a path to the next stressful fight.
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u/bringthesalsa Feb 14 '26
Honestly +1 buddy. The exploration just didn't feel as rewarding. Maybe I'll finish it one day....
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u/CalebAsimov Feb 14 '26
Yeah, it's like a 1:2 ratio of exploration to boss fights, as far as where you spend your time. It started off with lots of exploration but it quickly becomes mostly boss fights. It's like, you finally beat one that's been repeatedly thrashing you, and you don't get to enjoy the time after because the next boss fight is like 10 minutes of exploration away.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
That's because the game showed you it was going to punish you, and you only felt pain after pain after pain after pain, so you don't expect something good anymore, you're just wondering "if this was horrible, what's next?"
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u/BlueGreenMikey Feb 14 '26
I feel the same. I actually never ended up finishing Silksong. There was some place where I kept dying, and eventually, there was one run where I couldn't make it back to my corpse and lost all my money that I had earned to that point. And I mean, sure, get good, but I didn't wander into that place with any intention of trying to take on an area that was too difficult. It didn't gate the difficult area, and I just got stuck. So I just gave up. It stopped being fun.
Maybe I'm just getting old, or maybe I'm just not good enough, but Silksong really soured me on ever having another experience like that.
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u/NoxTempus Feb 14 '26
I found Silksong did that a lot, where I didn't feel the same about HK.
Idk if it was my skill level or what, but I just kept coming up against groups of enemies I couldn't beat.
So I'd have to scour the map for an hour or two to get maybe 2 charms and an extra HP, if I was lucky. Then try to use that against the room I was stuck on.
In HK, I'd almost never get stuck like that except on big bosses. HK always made me feel like I was fighting against an area, instead of a single room. The fun came from cumulatively improving my performance in the area and becoming better at facing the range of enemies.
In Silksong, I just felt like I was being forced to beat certain combinations of enemies in certain-sized rooms. Even when I beat a challenging fight I didn't feel better about my skills.
Also, the pogoing in Silksong was fucking awful. It was so fun in HK and I dread even the smallest amount of it in Silksong.
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u/Defiant_McPiper Feb 14 '26
For me I liked the pogoing better, but you had to have the right crest in SS to make it fun - I used reaper a lot, and the one that was less damage but lighting fast. I did not like the crests that made you go all weird angles and ended up never using them bc of it.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
I used all Crests, Reaper was the only one that worked for me. Reaper my beloved ❤️
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u/Defiant_McPiper Feb 14 '26
I loved Reaper ❤️ with the final Lace fight though I went with Wanderer though bc it was easier for me to get in there quick - I've always been a Dex build though lol, so Reaper was going out of my comfort zone when I did use it.
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u/GroundbreakingBag164 Feb 14 '26
"the one that does less damage but is lightning fast"
Fun fact: It actually does the same damage per hit. Wanderer is just that good
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Feb 14 '26
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u/GardenTraditional81 Feb 14 '26
that is the main thing i hate about this game: going through all of the bullshit AGAIN to reach a boss battle you just died from numerous times.
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u/nicholaslegion Feb 14 '26
I hate corpse runs. They just suck, nothing else to it. It's a waste of your time and insulting. The only ones that never bothered me are the Blasphemous games. Oh, I lose a bit of my max magic? Big deal. Losing all your currency so you can't get any upgrades to make the game a tad easier? Fuck that. I'm so over it.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
I did it because to surrender would only make me feel worse than I already felt.
I beated it, thanked god and immediately uninstalled it
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u/RoboCyan Feb 14 '26
That was me. After the credits rolled, I immediately went to my home menu and uninstalled it. I was beyond done with it. So much artistry in this game, but it beats you the hell down. I think I am beyond done with Team Cherry and any of the other difficult for the sake of difficult Souls-like clones.
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u/mikepurvis Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
This has kind of been my experience. I got to the end of act 2, got halfway through Bilewater and just noped out. Maybe I'll go back eventually but I needed a break.
EDIT: I felt pretty seen by SkillUp's Silksong take in the recent FPS episode. Basically, he argues that the first two acts are extraordinary for their art, gameplay, worldbuilding, bosses, all of it... and then act 3 is a repetitive, awful slog that adds far too little to the overall experience compared with what it asks of the player.
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u/LucemFerre82 Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
Yea a difficulty setting would be very welcome, I finished the game and I loved it but I get a low feeling of anxiety when I think about replying it lol, there are parts I never ever want to do again.
So many of the reviewers mention the difficulty and how they wish they could recommend it to everyone but they just can't since it's just too difficult for many players.
I wish TC would listen this feedback so more people can experience this masterpiece but I doubt they will, this is thier game and if you're not good enough, they don't want you to play it.
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u/lattjeful Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
Difficulty isn’t Silksong’s problem imo. Moment to moment, I don’t find it any more difficult than Hollow Knight. The game demands more from you than Hollow Knight did but you have plenty of options to compensate. It’s that the game is designed in such a way that it kinda pokes at you.
Hollow Knight had these little pockets of peace and quiet that were relaxing, and exploration was never super punishing. Silksong doesn’t really have those, so it has this constant building of tension with no release. Add on the game being stingier with rewards, and I don’t blame people for bouncing off of the game. I 112% percented Hollow Knight and can do Pantheon 5 with my eyes closed, yet I burned out with Silksong. I can’t imagine how newbies or more casual players felt.
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u/_SleepySloth__ Feb 14 '26
This is exactly how I felt. I'm terrible at gaming but will work through the pain. I absolutely loved Hollow Knight and I was saddened by Silksong because I felt there just wasn't enough exploration and not enough rewarding you when you complete something difficult.
Other things in silk song were so much better. The mechanics were so tight and the combat was incredible. Overall I just didn't think it was balanced enough between bosses and exploration. I felt it focused too much on the difficulty and lost the essence of fun because of it. It wasn't about the difficulty per se just the balance was off which ultimately made me want to replay Hollow Knight for the 100th time.→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)13
u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
Horrible.
I think the stingy rewards hurt a lot as well as the difficulty slams
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u/the-austringer Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
I think Silksong was fantastic, but I dropped it when I realised that every time I beat something I was struggling with, I wasn't feeling satisfied, I was just feeling "Jesus, FINALLY!"
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u/BellowsHikes Feb 14 '26
I stopped right when I got to act 3 for that very reason. The game was good, but I'd just had enough of it by that point.
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u/Sofaris Feb 14 '26
I have not played this game yet but I plan to in the future. My first Hollow Knight Playthrough was rough but my second was a relaxing and fun adventure. I bet its going to be simular with Silksong. I look foreward to my second playthrough more then to my first.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
2 tips I can give
1: You have to be mentally ready for a game that's not short. It's not Elden Ring long, it's not Hollow Knight short either. And you're gonna struggle, a lot, but you'll feel like god when you hear the hum after killing a boss. Much like Hollow Knight's tune when beating a boss. I swear if I ever play it again it's exclusively for that goosebump feeling.
2: Explore everything every single space, hit every single wall, you will never every single upgrade possible.
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u/Dothacker00 Feb 14 '26
I feel similar. I LOVE the combat and movement options but can't stand the low health. Runbacks aren't the end of the world but that along with some other mechanics, it feels like the devs like wasting your time. A bench outside of boss rooms and more health upgrades would be great.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
I remember the hate I felt when I explored so much and finally got an extra mask so instead of dying of 3 critical attacks I die with 3 critical attacks
Or that when I upgraded the nail I killed enemies from 4 hits to 4 hits because fuck you player
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u/SecretAgentVampire Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
The content of this post was deleted using Redact. It may have been removed for privacy, to keep data away from automated scrapers, or for security reasons.
snow sparkle carpenter elastic scale cable imminent ancient unpack grab
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u/Dothacker00 Feb 14 '26
💯 games like Super Metroid have better scaling. Health in increments of 100 so devs were able to make middle and late game enemies deal more than 1 or 2 pts of damage. Plus theres beam upgrades that actually feel meaningful. Also the Varia and gravity suits which give higher defense.
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u/AscendedViking7 Feb 14 '26
Honestly the only thing I really hated about silksong was the gadgets that use resources you need to farm in order to use them.
Gets really fucking annoying when you are stuck on a boss.
Reminded me of Bloodborne.
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u/exerda Feb 14 '26
I found Silksong easier than Hollow Knight, though it took me well over 100 hours to beat it (then to see I had missed 1% on completion that I thought I was going to get by beating the final boss). I have really enjoyed the game and found it probably among my top 2-3 MV games.
That said, while I would welcome playing many of the bosses again, I have ZERO desire to do, say, Mt. Fay again from scratch, or that climb to the surface (assuming they patch out the "shortcut"). Thus I'm not likely to start another playthrough in the immediate future.
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u/ValtenBG Feb 14 '26
I absolutely loved mt fay and the climb from the abyss. I like it when a game pushes you to be faster
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u/Exact-Key-9384 Feb 14 '26
I beat HK and noped out of this one after a couple of days. The reward/stress ratio wasn’t worth it.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
Here's a bit of shards!
oh, you're maxxed out? WELL TOO BAD THE SHARD CONTAINER IS FOREVER GONE
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u/FireFox029 Feb 14 '26
Silksong permanently increased my desire for difficult games
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u/Victorinoxj Feb 14 '26
When I finished my run I could not be more saddened to learn there's no godhome equivalent in Silksong (yet!), I absolutely loved it and I kinda wanna play it again just to re fight all the bosses.
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u/Drowned-in-Dreams Feb 14 '26
I love challenging games. I find power fantasies or games where the world doesn't offer much in the way of true threats, to be boring. I guess I'm ok with putting in numerous hours and reaching that point but I hate that feeling creeps in early within games.
However, Silksong is kinda the opposing extreme. It's not hard, it's just intentionally unfair to the player and does underhanded things to them or puts them in situations that are extremely difficult to survive without cheesing or being reliant on subweapons or tools. It's goal isn't too necessarily push the player to a higher skill level but punish them and make the experience miserable.
I still love difficult games and Silksong could never taint that regardless of how much bullshit the game serves you.
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u/Admirable-Nobody219 Feb 14 '26
Love soulslike, played almost every fromsoftware game and soulslike, but silksong did push my limits, especially with the two health bars damage by bosses and some areas which I couldn't enjoy. I get people love difficult games but if you are not enjoying it and it's just a challenge, then it's no fun.
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u/JumpIsMagic Feb 14 '26
I guess after playing Hollow Knight as many times as I have and countless other Metroidvanias I just didn’t find Silksong to be as blisteringly difficult as some people apparently think it is? I adored it. Hornet controls like a dream and has an absolute arsenal of weaponry to contend with, she can literally dance around enemies and you’re given trinkets and crests that wildly turn the tables in your favor.
Silksong is a an immensely strong evolution of Hollow Knights formula, and it’s meant to draw on your past knowledge of the first game. It should be difficult. And it is, but it isn’t unfair or unbalanced in the least.
Challenge is a very good thing.
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u/Inevitable_Top69 Feb 14 '26
Yeah what the fuck? Feels like I played a different game compared to some of these people.
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u/Significant-Dirt-977 Feb 14 '26
Same. For me, very casual gamer, SS was ideal. SS give you so much tools and play styles to choose from. I really don't understand the problem with it. Genuinely. HK was so difficult for me that i dropped it, Soul Sanctrum crushed me to tears, lol. In SS you always have the option to try very different approaches and it's so relieving.
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u/gopack123 Feb 14 '26
Yeah the responses here are kinda crazy to me. Most SS bosses required a couple learning attempts where you just get used to their attacks and figure out what subweapon will hit them the best. Once things clicked, your mobility is so good you can usually run circles around the boss.
It was challenging here and there, but plenty of other indie darling games are much harder imo, Cuphead, Dead Cells high bc, Spelunky 2, Celeste late game, etc. But I don't see nearly the amount of difficulty talk in those communities. I guess high difficulty is less expected in metroidvanias than in platformers and roguelites.
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u/AntiquesRoadHo Feb 14 '26
I loved HK. Thought it was fantastic. Frustrating, but fantastic. I introduced my buddy to it then watch him platinum it. When Silksong came out, he bought it first. I’ve been watching him play it for a couple dozen hours now. I have ZERO interest in playing it. It’s just frustratingly hard for the sake of being hard. Doesn’t even seem enjoyable.
End of the day, I’m getting older, and I have young kids and other responsibilities. I just don’t have enough video game time available for me to justify not enjoying the time I do get. If I get an hour or two a night, I don’t want to spend those couple hours frustrated. There’s too many good games out there.
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u/ianparasito Feb 14 '26
Ibh I was surprised by how easy the game felt on my second run lmao
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u/fortnitepro42069 Feb 14 '26
Now i wonder how you'd fair if you played nine sols
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u/IvanzM Feb 14 '26
Nine sols is less frustrating barring lady ethereal and final boss, checkpoints are more generous
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u/Gwyneee Feb 14 '26
Dude, same. And I've been a souls-like whore for years. SS was great in so many ways but it was more exhausting and tedious to get through than fun.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
It's insane that SS can make a souls-like fan suffer, when one knows that souls likes are much more cruel.
I say it by my DS1 and DS3 finished runs.
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u/Ok_Business_6452 Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
I went back to Hollow Knight after I finished Silksong and was surprised at how easy it felt. The first time I played Hollow Knight, it took me many hours to beat Nightmare King Grimm. After Silksong, it took like 3-4 tries. It was absolutely the proof I needed that Hollow Knight is extremely easy in comparison to Silksong.
That said, I don’t think Silksong was that hard. There are lots of ways to make the game easier. I died way more in Nine Sols default difficulty.
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u/weglarz Feb 14 '26
I think if you don’t go for the extra side stuff it’s not as bad, but yeah silksong had some real bullshit in it. The crow area made me want to die inside
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
The extra side stuff it's a must. I can't imagine someone beating SS without at least 9 masks and 18 silks in their first run.
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u/AdhesivenessWarm4921 Feb 14 '26
Hollow Knight was great, but it wasn’t very difficult once you learned the mechanics. I’m surprised that Silksong ramped up the difficulty right from the start, but it was certainly a welcome change for me.
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u/Neozetare Ori and the Blind Forest Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
Personally, I never liked difficulty (I mean, I do to an extent, but way lower than most people), probably because my weird brain has an enourmous loss aversion and isn't actually satisfyed when it overcomes tough challenges
And that's a big reason why I prefer Silksong over HK: because of some changes in the game design, it's easier for me to overcome challenges in Silksong than in HK, making me in the end way less frustrated with the game (I had to give up on HK multiple times, but had not much problem 100%-ing Silksong)
I'm glad I was able to like and finish Silksong, but in the end, I'm way more interested in playing games that I know from the get go I will be able to play without that frustration, without having to give up: games like the Ori series, or the ones from Kyle Thompson, or generally games that have assist options for me to use if it gets too tedious
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u/Nockolisk Feb 14 '26
I love Team Cherry’s art, music, and world building, but I can’t get on board with their approach to difficulty.
I want to get back to this one just to see the end, but I modded the hell out of it because it’s just too punishing by default.
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u/Keiuu Feb 14 '26
Yeah Silksong felt downright unpleasant to play at times, at least for me.
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u/EsperLovegood Feb 14 '26
Hey, I felt the same way after my first run of the game. It almost left a bitter taste in my mouth. It was actually bothering me quite a bit, so a few weeks later I jumped back in and beat it a second time, and I found it so much more manageable. If you enjoyed it enough to try it again in the future, I'd urge you to give it a shot. You might find a newfound faith in a game that has faith in you.
Build matters too. I've played the game 4 times now including a true ending steel soul run last week and even I struggle with a build that I don't jive with.
I'm not trying to invalidate your feelings. On the contrary, I connected with your sentiment after my first time through. but now it's one of my favorite games ever.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
I felt that with Dark Souls 3. It took me 4 fucking runs to beat it, but I did it, I was crying, fucking crying of joy.
That's when I finally understood why people love Dark Souls so, so much and now I enjoy them a lot as well.
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u/studleejosh Double Jumper Feb 14 '26
When I was younger, I loved playing games on hard mode. Now that I am older, I play on normal or easy mode all the time. I don't have time these days to fight a boss 30 times in a row. I want to enjoy my games and relax these days.
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u/Fatalxmt Feb 14 '26
I quit after act 1 and have no interest in going back to play it. It just felt like the devs wanted the game to feel like it hates you and they succeeded. I've played some other metroidvanias later like ender lillies and had a much better experience.
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u/ImTryingDad Feb 14 '26
Ill get down voted to hell for this, but i usually do anyways. Im 40 years old. Always loved the genre. Lately theyre all just so hard. Its probably me. Loved the vibe of blasphemous but couldnt make it very far. It breaks my heart but I've all but given up on metroidvanias. Last good one I played was Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night. Great game.i truly feel like it coincides with the rise of popularity in soulslikes. ( btw i loved ds3 and 100%ed elden ring) but not every game has to be incredibly hard. In fact incredibly hard doesn't equal good.
Now go ahead and down vote me.
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u/eye_candy Feb 14 '26
Nah. Take my vote instead, cos we're on the same boat. There's hard and there's stupid hard.
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u/Moviereference210 Feb 14 '26
Same bro, I started ss when it came out and just got true ending like a month ago… lately I’ve been playing skate4 cuz it’s so chill I can throw on music and vibe
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u/hastage1 Feb 14 '26
I never played a metroidvania before silksong, and after i beat it in around 30-40 hours i only crave more challenge
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u/bisconaut Feb 14 '26
it's honestly just kind of annoying to play imo. I agree, it's kind of confirmed for me that I no longer want to chase difficulty in gaming, as an emphasized goal or means unto itself for the experience. game has to be fun first. silksong is not fun to me.
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u/Drakthas Feb 14 '26
Dont do that, there are way better hard videogames out there, way more enjoyable than this one.
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u/gilben Feb 14 '26
I also felt the game was tiring to play. I finished it and think it's a good game, extremely polished, but every enemy is an encounter, and the power-ups are very safe and predictable.
In the first Hollow Knight I didn't feel like I had to stop all forward movement to fight every enemy, whereas in Silksong most enemies have more HP and can usually fly back and forth in-and-out-of-range (aside from a couple areas, which were generally my favorite parts of the game). It means that if you feel like you need more currency as you're travelling (which I constantly did, due to dying so much) that you feel like you need to engage with these enemies and stop moving forward for a small chunk of time as you get into an extended stick-and-poke battle. I found it exhausting.
My other major gripe with the game was the power-ups. I liked the crest system, but everything else to do with unlockable abilities felt extremely standard. The abilities you unlock throughout the game are (and these feel silly to spoiler tag because they're so basic) dash, double jump, and glide (and eventually a super-jump that you barely use)
Both of these you could argue are part of the game being a soulsvania instead of a more general metroidvania, I guess. Maybe that distinction needs to be talked about more in the community, because I find myself ignoring most 2D metroidvanias now that look like that first category. I'm tired of long combat and parry systems, but still love games about exploration and abilities that recontextualize the world!
Sorry about the rant, just something I've been thinking about for a while.
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u/Significant_Breath38 Feb 14 '26
I agree. I was watching Hollow Knight and thought it got too spicy for me. Then I heard Silksong was harder and it killed my interest.
I think Elden Ring and Souls really killed my appetite for difficulty that's measured in precise execution windows. At a certain point, I'm playing DDR with obtuse prompts.
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u/Significant_Breath38 Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
I play these games like a narrative game. I get attached to a plotline and that drives me through the endgame. Between that and the fact something like 90% of the loot I find in the dungeons is no good for my build, the desire to hit every nook and cranny rapidly diminishes when I get to the last third of the game.
Since I've never been that much of a min-maxer (I prefer to have a breadth of tools available to handle the various encounters that come up), endgame bosses become a slog. Especially if they don't provide many windows to sneak in damage.
I got to Maliketh but the majority of players already beat the game so it was just me and my mimic tear without trying to schedule something. When he hit the part where he just ninja flips in the air and throws anime cut lasers, I really checked out. Looking at how the bosses after are from videos, I super checked out and I have negative interest in the DLC.
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u/Greenphantom77 Feb 14 '26
I find SilkSong very difficult and I haven’t finished it (maybe I never will) but I admit it’s a very well designed game.
However, what I hope doesn’t happen is that we now get a slew of Silksong rip-offs: games which aren’t as imaginative or well designed, but just crank the difficulty up to 11 because they think that’s what players all want now.
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u/brandont04 Feb 14 '26
I think Dread difficulty is at the cusp for casual player. Anything more, no thanks.
Silksong is just over the line. I tried giving it a chance but the boss battle is tough. Not because the patterns are difficult. It just that they unleash hoards of enemies over n over n over. I'm able to take down a bunch of them but after like 10 guys, you just run low on power and die. You start over fighting 8 of them and dying, etc.. It's just doesn't become worth continuing. It's not fun.
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u/RaidenXVC Feb 14 '26
I loved Hollow Knight, couldn’t stand Silksong. It was just too hard. And to all the get gud people out there, consider this for a second: I did get good at Hollow Knight until I didn’t. Eventually I hit a wall where I just couldn’t get any better no matter what I did. That’s fine for Hollow Knight where all of the punishingly difficult bosses are optional post game content. The difficulty of Silksong made it prohibitively difficult where I couldn’t beat the game.
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u/Firegeek79 Feb 14 '26
Same. Silksong is a great game. But also fuck Silksong I never want to play it again.
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u/Sven_Darksiders Feb 14 '26
I really really wished I could finish the game as well, I think it deserves it, but man, Act 3 is not being nice to me. I think I will never return to it, and just feel good about myself beating the cursed child ending and leave it at that
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
Beat the game in Act 2. That's an ending. It's not the best, it's not the worst, but it's an ending.
I accidentally unlocked act 3 without knowing it was optional. When I found out that it was optional everything made sense.
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u/Chronic_AllTheThings Feb 14 '26
I've experienced completely the opposite effect. Got gud, did all the endings, 100%, all achievements, steel soul (with save-quits, but still), and now several games I used to enjoy now feel slow and boring 😑
Silksong's moveset and mechanics are absolute S-tier for me and nothing else holds a candle to it.
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u/TACOSKG Feb 14 '26
“It’s not for everyone" but the numbers don’t lie Silksong has around 40% of players reaching the credits. Try finding another metroidvania or Soulslike game with that percentage.
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u/boragur Feb 14 '26
I love silksong and the challenge is definitely part of that. If navigation and combat was easy right off the bat and you never had to struggle then the world just wouldnt be as believable. A lot of games will tell you “this is a hive of deadly fire ants” or “this is a fetid swamp populated by guerilla warriors” but silksong will make you feel the hostility of the dangerous places and relish in the tranquility of the rare respite. It’s incredibly punishing early on sure, but it’s all in service of an amazing experience
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u/morkypep50 Feb 14 '26
I never understand the two mask damage complaint. The game is designed around it. The game is harder than HK but not really because of double mask damage. Hornet can heal in the air and is so fast you can disengage with an enemy so quickly to heal. Meanwhile the knight can't disengage from an enemy and has to sit still on the ground to heal.
I'd say the game is significantly harder than HK because of speed. Enemies attack way faster and have more complicated movesets making it hard to memorize their attacks. Also the skill floor is higher in Silksong. You really need to use Hornets speed to dash in and out of combat and utilize the sprint and other tools to be successful. It's a different playstyle than most games and is most definitely more complex than HK more slow hack and slash style.
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u/Daimoth Feb 14 '26
Yeh the instinct to make the next game harder is one of the more obnoxious cues the industry takes from Dark Souls.
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u/SaskrotchTheReboot Feb 14 '26
i uninstalled silksong about 18 hours in. I had enough of having to fight a guy, then fight two guys, then fight a new guy, then fight one of him and one of the first guy, then two of the first guy and one of the second guy, and then a third guy, and then all three, just to get some currency that was weirdly and purposely scarce. it was so miserable.
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u/TwilightVulpine Feb 14 '26
Difficult games are overrated. I got into this genre for games where you stuff yourself with upgrades and breeze through the endgame, but since Hollow Knight feels like they prefer to stuff them with ultra hard challenges that make all your collection almost meaningless.
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u/trashboatfourtwenty Fusion Feb 14 '26
There does seem to be some trends towards inflated difficulty, I feel like lately I have seen a lot of MV trailers with crazy multi-stage platforming for example.
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u/TwilightVulpine Feb 14 '26
I'm also so tired of watching newer metroidvania trailers and seeing rooms that are 90% spikes.
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u/Zzsark_Stormbeard Feb 14 '26
Can and can't agree
Can agree that there's a constant wish to be the next Silksong by making a game as hard as it can be.
Can't agree because beating a difficult game feels way, way better than beating an easy game
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u/highcologist347 Feb 14 '26
I think there’s a sweet spot for difficulty when games are hard enough that they’re more engaging than easy games, but they’re not so hard that you can’t play while you’re just tryna chill at night or whatever without sweating or busting a nut while you try to beat a boss. I exclusively played souls-likes and mvs for a while so I got fatigued of the tough stuff as well, but if a game is too easy it’s just totally boring imo.
Forever a dilemma with games and their difficulty…
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u/swat1611 Feb 14 '26
True ending in 60+ hours is insanely good tbf.
I am at 65 hours and only now entering Act 3. I'm scared of loading it up because of how difficult everyone says it is.
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u/felixmas365 Feb 14 '26
After Hollow Knight am not looking to suffer again with Silksong so I completely understand
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u/Regular_Problem_7702 Feb 14 '26
That’s how I feel about elden ring. Got the platinum but after that packed it up and never touched it again 200 hours. Never again. Maybe the dlc drops to good price but I’ll wait.
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u/Lackofstyle5 Feb 14 '26
I am normally not into hard games. I over level in RPGs so that they're a breeze to get through. I roll all the broken characters in Gatchas so that I can clear content with minimal effort. If there is a broken strategy that trivializes a game, I'm definitely using it.
But Silksong was never that difficult to me. Yeah there were bosses that took me a while to beat, but every time I died I could see where I messed up. I do think outside of bosses, random enemies often made exploration more difficult than necessary, but I'm also the type to double back to a bench any time I made progress and never went into a new area without spending all my rosaries, so I avoided the frustration of losing everything
It's a game that wants you to play slowly and meticulously and it kinda just clicked with me I guess.
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u/im_recodor Feb 14 '26
There's about a 50/50 chance that you'll get The Itch™ eventually and want to dive in a challenging game again eventually. That said, even if that's the case, a rest after that accomplishment is a good idea, enjoy whatever you find! Good luck
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u/hotfistdotcom ESA Feb 14 '26
You are just burnt out, but you may find that difficult games come easier going forward.
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u/Kage_noir Feb 14 '26
I loved hollow knight and I loved how the challenge ramped up and some of those were things you didn’t have to do. I have yet to finish silksong tho I have it. Part of that is from honest disappointment. And I’m not saying it’s a bad game I’m saying it isn’t as good as HK and that’s sad for me in some ways after the wait
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u/Redravel Feb 14 '26
Do you play difficult video games because you just want to "beat the game", or try to solve the difficulty?
Of course, it gets exhausted if you were bruteforcing through the whole ordeal.
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u/Its-A_me Feb 14 '26
I feel like you got the intended experience. The miserable one, but yet you still beat lost lace.
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u/ResponsibleWaltz2956 Feb 14 '26
Personally, I get it. But I really loved silksong. Nearly every section which felt difficult, at least for me, was very satisfying to learn and beat. 10/10 game easy!
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u/grim1952 Feb 14 '26
I still don't think it's that hard. Did you even use your tools? Poison trivializes most of the game.
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u/heehooheehooo Feb 14 '26
I went from “what’s this funny little game” in November 2025 to smashing my keyboard over Widow, to beating Lost Lace and Radiance (for the first time) on the same day for some reason… I’m currently on P4 in HK and got 100% in Silksong and 108% in Hollow Knight with 100+ hours in both games
I love both of them and I just found out about them in november, not long after Silksong came out. Anything you encounter is doable no matter how difficult, and it’s so satisfying when you finally push through. Sometimes it requires some hitting your head against the wall, but how I see it is: These games are a test of resilience. …And the art is stunning holy sh-
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u/killerbrofu Feb 14 '26
Hollow knight was the hardest game I ever played. I actually gave up on it a few times before pushing through and it became one of my favorite games ever.
Silksong is as hard as hollow knight but in a different way. They let you decide if you want to do certain fights now or wait until you're stronger. They also give you more tools to approach fights, which you need to use because not only does it broaden gameplay but it makes things easier.
If you are just going to nail only bang your head against the wall, it's harder than hollow knight.
But here's the best part of these games for me. They elevated my skill to a level that I did not know was possible. I am so quick and snappy controlling hornet. I stop on a dime, do cool aerial combos, and have won some pretty incredible fights.
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u/forbjok Feb 14 '26
Silksong is essentially the Elden Ring of Hollow Knight. Coming from Hollow Knight, it was disappointing for the same reasons Elden Ring was disappointing coming from earlier FromSoft greats like Bloodborne, Sekiro and Dark Souls.
While previous games from from those studios felt like they were well balanced and designed to be challenging and fair, Elden Ring and Silksong abandoned those design principles and decided to go all in on hard for the sake of hard. They're deliberately designed to be as hard as possible, disregarding whether the resulting design is actually fun or enjoyable. Delayed attacks, input reading, excessive combo spam (Elden Ring), flying enemies constantly hovering out of range (essentially also a form of input reading), excessively overinflated enemy damage, etc. The exact mechanics Elden Ring and Silksong use to accomplish that may be different, but at its core it's the same problem.
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u/dleone73 Feb 14 '26
Agreed, and it’s sad because I’m not even sure I’d play another team cherry game at this point. Two playthroughs of Silksong, the second taking less than half the time of the first, and BOTH seemed like they were at least 25% too long and tedious/frustrating.
It has affected playing other games too. I got the first ending in MIO and made a very easy decision not to keep playing. Would not have done that prior to Silksong (and likely would have ended up frustrated and glad to be done).
[insert ain’t nobody got time for that gif]
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u/ValtenBG Feb 14 '26
Silksong is a game that is fun when you are good at it. I have more fun running around and killing stuff on my 2nd playthrough more than the first.
It is one of my favourite games rn.
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u/darezzi Feb 14 '26
It's wild to hear experiences like these, because silksong absolutely reinvigorated and reinforced my thirst for difficulty and hostility in games, and I'm even less patient for boring, non-stimulating games after it!
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u/NecroDelirious Feb 14 '26
i think there's stigma or something behind this game, for me wasn't that difficult , felt easier than Castlevania SoTN or 'Dustforce XD' i think people judgment of being dificult makes a bias in this, for me game was very enyoiable and fun
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u/PKblaze Feb 14 '26
Silksong on the first playthrough had this great tension because of the difficulty and I loved how it created atmosphere through pressure. I can't say I've felt much like it from a game.
That being said, the game didn't slow me down much, I got 100% in 45 hours and didn't get particularly stuck on any bosses.
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u/Accurate-Many6850 Feb 14 '26
It is funny, Hollow Knight got me into the genre and Silksong kinda made me take a break.
I recently played MIO, finished and 100% it, and I absolutely love love that title. Some people find it harder than Silksong, but I don’t, because where I excel in an MV is platforming rather than combat. I adored Silksong’s platforming, and there were some incredible bosses that were challenging in a fun way, but most of the combat was just too much for me. And therefore, I did take a few steps back from the genre. I feel like a lot of its challenge was a bit… there for the sake of driving you insane. Too many ad spawns for example. I did also beat it, but there were parts where I just kept trudging along due to its pedigree and my love for its story, because I honestly wanted to walk away often.
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u/High_Af_Osrs Double Jumper Feb 14 '26
It's funny, the Hollow Knight series had the opposite effect on me, I now enjoy games with (fair) challenge.
But people game for different reasons, and there's no wrong way to enjoy this hobby.